Jewelweed ~ Milk Weed ~ Poison Ivy Remedies

This is the jewelweed solution prepared by an acquaintance.  She simply boiled it in water, strained it and cooled it.  She gifted it to us in an old soda bottle.

Sandwich Bread ~ Tidbits

Now that I am back to baking bread, I made a new sandwich bread recipe, that my Uncle told me about just a few days ago.

. . .from the Handiwork Journal

. . . making progress on the scrap crochet blanket.  I have not repeated a color yet.  

Random Tidbits ~ Dehydrated Organic Ginger ~ Poison Ivy Remedies ~ Garden Treasures

Remember the organic ginger I dehydrated?  Well, I recently made a cup of hot tea using it with my tea infuser.  You could use a disposable or reusable tea bag too.  Anyway, the infused color is different from using freshly grated ginger, but the taste was pretty close to using fresh, just not as strong.  I'll be drying more when I find it available.

Herbal Journey ~ Catnip Tincture ~ Bug Spray

The mosquitoes are terribly thick this year, and we are seeing swarms of them in areas we never saw before.

So......

I decided to dig a bit deeper and found a recipe on Mountain Rose Herb's blog.  Less messy, and easier to tote along for possible camping trips. They posted one using catnip, other essential oils, and witch hazel extract.

I had all of the ingredients but a few, and even found catnip to make the tincture for it. 

Canning Applesauce ~ Extreme Clean Continues ~ Feta Salmon Pasta

Although Tiger is not supposed be sleeping on this good quilt, it was hard for me disturb him, as cute as he was.  That's how I feel at the end of the days here lately. Just give me a bed to curl up on.  I hate not feeling good.  And try to get me to rest when there is no one here to tell me.  Ha! 

Yesterday I tackled 12 pounds of organic apples.  I have to buy these at our grocer.  All of the orchards around here spray, and our trees have not started to produce yet.

 

8 pints of delicious, sugar free applesauce.  I use the ball recipe, but only add the organic lemon juice.

Operation "Garden" ~ Flower Seeds ~ Salsa Chicken

Last week, I told the kids it was "Operation Extreme Clean" and to not expect anything but cleaning the house.  This weekend?

"Operation Garden" if the weather cooperates.

I have officially started the gutting of the garden. The girls won't like me, but it needs to be worked on.  The barns may be next, so it's time to pull it all out.

 

It was very humid, and when I took my camera lens off yesterday, it immediately fogged up.  I have only gotten two hours out there, and much to do.  I only got 1/4 of the distance down the carrot row, beet row and green bean row.  I found many beets yet, and even carrots.  The carrots are no bigger than three inches in length (most are 2 inches or less), so I'm pulling them all out.  It will feed us a few meals, but won't be enough to freeze this year.  Some of the tops will go to Milo, our pet rabbit.

This is what all of the vegetable gardens look like.  Full of grass, thistle and various weeds.  Today the grass pulled easily, so I could find the dead plants to pull (or other surprises).  I am going to need to move my pea fence too, so that will determine where I plant my garlic next.  I can't move it to the south, because my asparagus is there.  I may move it completely to the new plot we are going to put in. 

 Lots and lots of weeds in those gardens.  Rain was due at 11am, so I stopped, but at noon, rain never arrived.  I should have worked another hour or two.